By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Sept. 12, 2001

OAKLAND — A partner of a Walnut Creek father convicted earlier this year of running one of the largest cocaine distribution rings on the West Coast was sentenced Wednesday to serve nearly 11 years in federal prison.

Lionel McCoy was ordered to spend 130 months behind bars after being convicted in March on six charges stemming from a drug operation headed by Kevin Lee Davis, who had lived a low-profile life as a suburban dad.

Wearing khaki jail clothes, McCoy thanked U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen for giving him a fair trial and asked that he be granted the same impartiality in sentencing. Jensen found that McCoy had not accepted responsibility for his role in the distribution ring, which prosecutors told jurors during a two-month trial moved hundreds of pounds of cocaine since its 1993 inception.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Pougiales said McCoy avoided a mandatory life sentence only “by the skin of his teeth” and that the man had a long history of drug dealing. “I just think he is a menace and will not reform his life and should stay in prison,” Pougiales told Jensen while arguing for a maximum 162-month sentence.

She declined to comment outside the courtroom.

McCoy’s stepfather, Gary Upshaw, also declined to comment other than to say “this is a difficult time.”

A jury found McCoy guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, the actual sale of cocaine, using a phone to further a drug operation, traveling to traffic cocaine and travelling to distribute proceeds from drug sales.

Prosecutors contended during trial that McCoy was a customer of Davis' with his own cocaine distribution ring extending to Kansas City, was also arrested. Jensen said Wednesday that he did not believe McCoy held a management position in the ring.

After a two-year investigation, Davis was arrested and also convicted in March of more than 80 drug charges accusing the Walnut Creek father of supplying a network of local dealers with cocaine. Before his arrest, Davis lived in well-maintained house in a quiet neighborhood with lush lawns, playful kids and basketball hoops.

Davis defense attorney, J. Tony Serra, has filed a motion for a new trial.

Davis faces a mandatory life sentence at a hearing next month.